NEWS FLASH!

WARSAW AUTUMN FESTIVAL

The program of the Warsaw Autumn Festival contains numerous international "attractions" guaranteed to bring
audiences for the innovative programming, which includes performances of Stockhausen's Gruppen (as well as
spatial pieces by Alvin Lucier and Martin Smolka) at the Sports Hall of CWKS Legia, Bemowo,
and Alexander Syrabin's extravagant Promethee with light displays
(as well as Andriessen's De Materie - Part IV and Grisey's Tempus ex machina) at the courtyard
of the Royal Castle. Other concert venues include the Concert Studios of the Polish Radio, the halls in the National
Library, Centre for Contemporary Art - Ujazdowski Theatre, Zachęta Gallery, Academy of Drama, and Grand Theatre - National Opera.
The concert hall of the National Philharmonics in Warsaw, where the Warsaw Autumn began and where it was
a fixture for many years is notably missing from this list.

Among numerous first performances in Poland (the majority of pieces on the program) Polish works are represented by
Enchaine by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (16 September), Harmonium by Hanna Kulenty. However, there is more Polish
music, especially by Andrzej Krzanowski (a monographic concert by Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej conducted by Aleksander
Lasoń on 19 September), and Włodzimerz Kotoński (a monographic concert organized by PWM publishers).

We should add that the opening concert, given at the National Theatre - National Opera, by the
National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio conducted by Arturo Tamayo, will feature the music of Zygmunt Krauze
(Piece for Orchestra No. 1) and Kazimierz Serocki (Forte e Piano) among such daring classics
of contemporary music as Par Lindgren, Pascal Dusapin, and Iannis Xenakis.

There will be a number of media arts, performances, and
audiovisual installations, including a project by Jarosłsaw Kapuściński and Nick Haffner (Your's), and musical
performances in the art gallery Zachęta.

Tickets could be ordered from the Festival Office at e-mail: festival@warsaw-autumn.art.pl
The festival has a web page at: http://www.warsaw-autumn.art.pl.
You may reach the office by calling 48-22--831-0607.

NEWS:

MANUSCRIPTS TRAVEL: FROM WARSAW TO L.A.

by Maria Anna Harley

If you are in Warsaw on September 23 and have time from 3 to 4:30 p.m., come to the Polish Composers' Union in the Old Town Square to meet Polish composers and see their manuscripts being donated to the PMRC Manuscript Collection. If you are in Los Angeles on October 21 and have time from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m., come to the Polish Music Reference Center in the United University Church building on USC campus and see the manuscripts that made it across the ocean. The Manuscript Exhibit will present the new donations and the music already in the PMRC Collection, including the five original manuscripts of Witold Lutoslawski donated in 1985. The L.A. event will include a concert of chamber music by composers featured in the exhibition; visitors will be able to listen to recordings of the music by these composers on small listening station. All adventurous music lovers are welcome.

I have already written about this project in the July issue of the Newsletter. Here is the account once again - to make sure that our readers mark their calendars and visit us on either continent. During my travel to Europe in June 2000 (for the 58th Annual Meeting of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America at Jagiellonian University), I had a series of conversations with Polish composers and members of their families. These conversations all had one topic in common: I was trying to persuade them to donate their manuscripts, sketches and scores of selected compositions to the PMRC Manuscript Collection. Most of the composers liked the idea of sending their music across the ocean, they only had a problem with the timing - it was very hard to do it right away, to part with these documents of their musical labor without preparation. They also wanted to retain copies for their archives, or to make the best possible selection.

Zygmunt Krauze

As Zygmunt Krauze teasingly said while showing me his drawers of manuscripts: "What did you think? That you would just show up and take all this music away from me and be gone in a snap?" So I had to come back. Meanwhile, the number of positive responses grew in such a fashion that an idea of creating a "fringe event" in the program of the International Festival of Contemporary Music, Warsaw Autumn, came about. Krzysztof Meyer had the time to look through his archives and donated the manuscript of Cyberiada - his futuristic opera based on the stories by Poland's leading science-fiction writer, Stanislaw Lem. I picked up these three heavy volumes (along with the sketches for Meyer's String Quartet no. 10 and one manuscript by Szymon Laks) in the Polish residence of the composer, in Poznan. We had met two weeks earlier in Cologne so Meyer (who is a professor of composition at the Cologne University) already had the time to think about his choices and "mourn the loss" of his musical creations.

During the September 23 ceremony, held at the Polish Composers' Union in Warsaw the gifts of their music will make in person: Krzysztof Baculewski, Krzysztof Knittel, Hanna Kulenty, Wlodzimierz Kotonski, Zygmunt Krauze, Edward Sielicki, Elzbieta Sikora, Tadeusz Wielecki, Anna Zawadzka, and others. Before the presentation of the gifts I will receive the materials from composers based in Krakow (Marek Stachowski, Zbigniew Bujarski, Krystyna Moszumanska-Nazar), Wroclaw (Grazyna Pstrokonska-Nawratil) and Poznan (Lidia Zielinska, Andrzej Koszewski). All these scores will also be available for viewing in Warsaw. A couple of donors will send their gifts by mail directly to the PMRC (here the courier service, with tracking numbers, seems the most secure way of transporting these unique materials).

The list of composers whose works will enrich our Manuscript Collection includes also those
who are no longer with us, starting with Roman Maciejewski whose brother Wojciech confirmed his
intention of donating a set of English Carols to the PMRC. This gift reminds me to ask our Californian
readers for donations. If you have any
memorabilia, photos, letters, from the Californian period of Maciejewski's life, the PMRC will be
grateful to receive these documents as well. I encourage you to look through some old boxes...
The donations from family members will also include Szymon Laks whose son, Andre, a college
professor in France (Laks remained in Paris after World War II and his son is a French citizen),
has decided to enrich our Collection with no less than eleven original scores in his father's hand.
Wanda Bacewicz, the tireless, energetic and admirable sister of the composer Grażyna, will expand
her gift
of sketches. Finally, musicologist and eminent music critic Andrzej Chłopecki promised a score by
Andrzej Krzanowski.

Włodzimierz Kotoński

This is what the composers and donors are doing for us. What could we do for them? Few composers whose works are now to enrich our Manuscript Collection had had web pages; the first benefit will be their new presence on the Internet. Two Polish students of economics (with good English and computer skills) spent their summer vacation by typing in biographies and lists of works of Polish composers, scanning their photographs (as well as working on sites about festivals, competitions, anthems and dances). Thanks to the work of Blazej Wajszczuk and Ewa Grzegrzulka the PMRC is now able to unveil new additions to its list of composers, now expanded from 12 to over 40 names. We will continue this work through the year, hoping to have 100 composers listed by next summer. Our web site also grew by the creation of pages dedicated to "Polish Dance in Southern California" (but this is a subject for another report). In the future, the composers' pages will contain essays about their music and samples of the music itself. At present, though, we have just began this exciting and necessary project.

The promotion of contemporary Polish composers in the U.S. should ideally take the form of concerts and festivals. Music needs to be heard not seen. Therefore, a small sample of pieces from our "new donation" list will be heard during a chamber music concert accompanying the "Exhibition of Manuscripts" on 21 October 2000, starting at 3 p.m. Nonetheless, the emphasis that day will rest on what could be "seen" - as we will present a largest selection of 20th-century Polish music manuscripts ever displayed in the U.S. The collection will have a Californian component that should, for now, remain a secret. In order to better inform our viewers about the music itself, several CD players with headphones will be made available and the visitors will be able to browse through scores and recordings of the composers. I hope that my Californian readers would be able to visit us, even if they don't read music. This event celebrates a milestone in the development of the PMRC Collection, and the Center's efforts to promote Polish music in the U.S.

UNESCO MANIFESTO

Hanna Lachert, Polish-American violinist based in New York, has alerted us to a manifesto sponsored by UNESCO and promoting a culture of non-violence and peace. Over 100 million people signed it already and the numbers are growing daily. You might wish to join the crowd (the size of over two Polands or one-third of the U.S.) and sign at:
MANIFESTO 2000 (www.unesco.org/manifesto2000).

GLOBAL MUSIC NETWORK

You may visit the Global Music Network at GMN.com to hear and read about
Lutoslawski and his Funeral Music, which had been recorded
last year at the Royal Festival Hall in London's South Bank
Center with Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting the
Philharmonia Orchestra in a live performance.
On the web site you can also read and hear Chopin's

Variations for piano, Op. 2 and Introduction and Polonaise
performed by Jon Kimura Parker and Desmond Hobig. You can
even join the site's discussion forums on classical music. [WW]

BACEWICZ ON MIDI

Przemek Znaniecki from Poznan informs us about his success in digitizing contemporary Polish music. He created MIDI files for a sonata by Grazyna Bacewicz, noticing in the process how important it is to recreate all the information from paper notation, all the articulation signs, dynamics, tempi. At present he is working on Witold Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations. For more information please contact the author, at his email address.

MELOMAN NOTICED

The October issue of the Gramophone reports that "if you are interested in
Poland's classical music scene and speak the language,
wwww.meloman.pl is an informative and visually attractive
port of call." Tomasz Trzebiatowski, the editor, claims it
"is the country's most comprehensive online classical music
centre - features daily classical music news, CD reviews,
repertoire lists, and radio and TV listings." [WW]

As a companion, you can get a set of 12 tapes of
Polish Folk Music by the Mazowsze, Slask and other folk
song and dance ensembles from E.A. Trading of Santa Barbara. The tapes are available
at www.heartofpoland.com. [WW]

SZPILMAN'S "THE PIANIST"

The memoirs of Władysław Szpilman (1911-2000), a Polish pianist and composer published first by Victor Gollancz
in London, have been reprinted in 2000 by Chivers Press (Bath, England) and Thorndike Press (U.S.), in collaboration
with McArthur and Company (Toronto Canada). The book is entitled, The pianist:
The Extraordinary Story of one Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-45. A German translation appeared in 1998.
Both editions are revised versions of Szpilman's memoirs that were originally published in 1946, by Spółdzielnia
Wydawnicza in Warsaw, with a different title, Śmierć miasta: Pamiętniki Władysława Szpilmana
(1939-1945) [The Death of the City: Memoirs of W.S.]. The only other book-size publication by Szpilman that
my Internet search discovered is his 1974 collection of 30 songs for voice and piano, W Domu Ojczystym
[In the Fatherland Home], issued by Agencja Autorska in Warsaw.

PMRC REPORTS

PIASA IN KRAKÓW, ROOTS IN POLAND

by Maria Anna Harley

What is PIASA? This abbreviation is not as well known to average Polish Americans as the PAC, or PNA, even though this Polonian organization has a long and distinguished history. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America was founded in 1944 in New York by a group of Polish emigre scholars of international fame, including anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, historian Oskar Halecki, and others. The Institute went on to become one of the pillars of Polish cultural life in America. Membership is by invitation only: the Institute welcomes new members who either (1) hold a doctorate and are involved in university-level teaching or research (even though they might not be affiliated with an institution of higher learning), or (2) have achieved a level of national and international prominence due to their artistic talents or personal achievements (writers, artists, composers, musicians, TV personalities, celebrities, etc.). New members are usually recommended by their peers; after sending in their CV and letters of application are approved by the Institute's Board of Directors.

The Institute publishes a scholarly journal, the Polish Review, which appears four times a year and brings articles from the domain of humanities and social studies, all about Poland. There is a library collection to use, lectures to attend, and various other activities that could be enjoyed only by the inhabitants of New York and its vicinities. For all others some information about PIASA could be found on the Institute's web page, at www.piasa.org.
An important and highly visible part of the Institute activities are its annual meetings, held in the middle of June, after the academic year is over and before all the scholars, presumably, go to Poland to work on their research projects.

On June 16-18, 2000 PIASA met at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The conference was one of the events celebrating the 600th anniversary of the reestablishment of the University by Saint Jadwiga, the Queen of Poland (the university was founded in 1364, but by her time, it was in serious financial trouble; renewing the university is part of the young queen's title to everlasting fame). This was truly a historic event: PIASA returned to its roots, i.e. to the site of the Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci (PAU, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences) that provided a model for the emigre scholars during the war and to the University from which its founders graduated and where they had been teaching before being forced to flee the country. Everyone remembers what happened to university professors when the Nazi army came to Lwow: they were arrested and killed. The PIASA founders found their way out (their paths to America should be a subject for a separate story; and so should be the long and distinguished history of the organization, and its numerous achievements).

Let me, then, forward to 1990s: before coming to California in 1996 for three years I had been a member of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada, located in Montreal. I knew about PIASA's existence since this was the PIASC's parent organization - the Canadian branch became an independent Institute with its own sections in the whole country in 1960s. I also knew that it would be wonderful to join such an eminent group of scholars, specialists in Polish history and culture.

My invitation for membership came from Prof. Paul Knoll who teaches history at the University of Southern California and is a board member of PIASA (he is American, but I would like to find some Poles able to recite dynasties of Polish kings, with their dates and lineages as well as he knows them!). A further incentive was my personal contact with two people without whose tireless activities the Institute would not grow and flourish as well as it does: its Executive Director, Dr. Thaddeus Gromada, and the Manager of the office, Jane Kedroń (Dr. Gromada's sister). I had the pleasure to meet them in Poland, in Zakopane to be exact - in the hospitable home of the wonderful Polish singer, Andrzej Bachleda. At that time (July 1997), I came to meet Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and personally invite him to the School of Music at the University of Southern California. He wanted me to meet his friends, to see if I could pass the test before he would commit to visiting USC. What test it was I don't know, but evidently I passed it since Mr. Górecki came to USC in the Fall of 1997, accompanied by Andrzej Bachleda and Mr. and Ms. Kedron. Gorecki had been the guest of the Kedrońs in New York; from his point of view, the USC "Górecki Autumn" was an extension of his trip to the 50th anniversary of the Tatra Eagle, a Podhalean publication (the Kedrons and the Gromadas are true "górale" of course; Górecki is from Silesia, but he settled in Podhale and is a "góral" in spirit).

To return to the PIASA story: as a new member of the Institute, I was invited to contribute to the yearly meetings some scholarly sessions about music. The results: a 1999 Special Session on the Reception of Chopin (celebrating the Chopin Year) with three papers, and a 2000 Special Session on Polish -Jewish Music, again with three papers. The second session was an enlargement of some of the material previously presented at USC - during our ground-breaking International Conference on "Polish/Jewish/Music!" (November 1998). Topics from that conference continue to fascinate scholars in America and a book proposal is in the works. But more about it later.

Paul Knoll, M.A. Harley; 16 June 2000

So, here I was, with another session accepted into the PIASA program. As important as it was for me, of course, it was just one of the elements of the 58th Annual Meeting, a meeting of such scope and significance that it will be remembered for a long time. From the opening ceremony held in the aula of Collegium Novum at UJ where the Rector of the Jagiellonian University awarded honorary doctorates to Zbigniew Brzezinski and Prof. Piotr Wandycz (a distinguished historian), to the closing ceremony at the Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci where the recipients of the Cross of Merit awarded by the President of Poland included Dr. Gromada (Commandor), Ms. Kedron, Prof. Knoll, and many others, the Meeting was unlike any other.

I know it was unique - in my relatively brief academic career (10 years) I gave papers at about 40 conferences and attended a couple more as a participant. None other conference touched me as deeply. The reverence and awe felt within the walls of the Collegium Novum, decorated with paintings by Matejko, portraits of St. Jadwiga and Nicolaus Copernicus; the childish joy of parading in academic regalia through the Market Square in a procession of 200 scholars including a full range of professors from Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, and academics representing all the states of the U.S. (these robes and hats are truly medieval!); the intellectual delight of conversing with and listening to some of our greatest minds - all this and more made the PIASA Meeting into a true Millennial celebration.

The sessions ranged widely in subjects, with many focusing on history, sociology (study of minorities and regional identities, e.g. from Silesia, is a new hot trend), literature, women's issues. There was political science, of course, as well as medicine (not obvious -but many members are doctors and they want to discuss topics of interest to them). USC participation was small in number but strong in quality: Prof. Paul Knoll (historian) chaired one session and talked about his research at another, Prof. Diane Wilk (architect) attended meetings of the Advisory Board of PIASA (she is the Board's youngest member), and yours truly talked about Polish -Jewish composers who immigrated to the U.S. and their shifting identities, their troubles with finding a place for themselves in the new society. Prof. Halina Goldberg greatly expanded her study of Jewish salons and musicians in 19th-century Poland during her archival studies in Warsaw - she focused on the contribution to Polish culture of the assimilated Jewish families who spoke Polish and published Polish books (as well as gave us such Polish composers as the Wieniawski brothers, from the Wolffs).

I was delighted with the response of our American colleagues to our topics and discoveries, with the curiosity and encouragement that we received. These are not easy matters, given the history of Polish anti-Semitism which grew at the end of 19th century, peaked in 1930s, at the time of economic crisis, and survived the war to plague the airwaves of some radio stations and stain pages of books and newspapers freely published and distributed in the country (Poland has no "hate" laws like Canada; perhaps it should). But Polish American scholars are open-minded, they live in the U.S. and know that the stereotypical "Jew" who wants to take over the world (either as a communist or a capitalist, no matter which) does not exist. Instead they know a lot of different Jewish people, good and bad, brilliant and boring, just like everyone else.

Their reaction was, sadly, completely different from comments I received after the session (confidentially, no less) from some Polish scholars of older generation. I was told: "it is not good to present topics like yours. It is too dangerous. We should not say who was of Jewish background, we should not name them. Remember 1968? All this is not too far behind. What if someone like Hitler came to power? He would have it all done - these people and their families would be known, they could be in danger." Here, I'm paraphrasing the words that sent a chill down my spine: so now, in 21st-century Poland, it is still dangerous to admit that one might be - pssst - Jewish? Amazing. This reaction is even more disturbing, when one recalls the anti-Semitism of past America and its gradual, though not-complete disappearance from public life (with an openly orthodox nominee for the VP of the country in 2000). Judging by the words of my older, distinguished colleague who spoke from his life-time experience, anti-Semitism is alive and well in the Old Country.

With all the more zeal I will, then, work on this topic; perhaps organize another conference,
perhaps just publish my own paper in more venues than one (I have received two invitations to submit
it to scholarly journals), perhaps... There is only one way forward: openness. There is only one end
to bigotry: freedom. PIASA embodies intellectual freedom, courage, independence of researchers from
pressures, it cherishes academic virtues in the best meaning of the term.

I am happy that the Institute added my paper to its program. I'm also proud that I have been able to
work with scholars of Polish Jewish descent, primarily Dr. Halina Goldberg who recently accepted a position at the University of Alabama. Afer the PIASA Meeting, Dr. Goldberg visited her elderly, ailing parents in the city of Lodz. They miraculously survived the war and refused to leave their beloved country (after the Kielce riots in 1946, the all-Poland persecutions in 1968, and any time in-between or after) but now are left only with some elderly friends who remained after all their children have emigrated, so there is no younger generation and no grandchildren to enjoy. The Jewish remnant of Lodz is dying out.
I visited my hospitalized parents: my mother with her stories of picnics near Switez and parties in Baranowicze (as the cutest little girl in town, she once gave flowers to Pilsudski), and her nostalgia for the family's way of life destroyed by the Soviets, and my father with his background of poverty and rejection (a half-orphan who started learning Polish at the age of 6 and owed his education to the benevolence of the socialist state, he could not reveal his Byelarussian roots and non-Catholic Christianity among the proud Poles, with their infinite contempt for all the "ruski"). I am proud of my parents, now even more than ever; Halina Goldberg is proud of hers. These "non-Catholic" Polish families belong to the social fabric of the country; they are its inseparable thread. PIASA scholars know and study the cultural mosaic that had made Poland a strong and tolerant country long ago; the Institute's activities allow such minority voices to be heard.